PWDs bemoan slow action ....on implementation Act(Friday October 1, 2012 Page 25)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga PERSONS WITH DISABILITY (PWDs) in the Bolgatanga and Talensi District have bemoaned the slow implementation of Persons with Disability Act. They have therefore reminded municipal and district assemblies of the requirements in the Act, which was passed in 2006, by and comply putting in place the necessary arrangements to make life easier for the disabled citizens. The law inter alia imposes obligation on municipal and district assemblies to address deficiencies in providing access for persons with disability to public buildings but years after the law was passed, PWDs in the region have stated that most public buildings including offices of Municipal and District Assemblies are not accessible to persons with disability. PWDs made the call at a forum with duty bearers and office holders at Bolgatanga. The aim of the forum was to provide an accountability platform for PWDs to engage with duty bearers on issues affecting them. It was also to track the commitments and actions of duty bearers in line with Provisions PWD Act. It was organized by Rural Initiatives for Self Empowerment-Ghana (RISE) with support from the German Centre for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana. Contributing to the discussions, Madam Gifty Akapadi of the Ghana Society of Persons with Disability narrated how she once slipped and tumble while climbing a flight of stairs while trying to access the offices of the Municipal Chief Executive of Bolgatanga. She said this wouldn’t have happened with the assembly had made efforts to make the building accessible for the PWDs by installing lifts or relocating the office of the chief Executive to the ground floor. Madam Josephine Kuomkugre, Bolgatanga Municipal Chairperson of the Ghana Society of Persons with Disability also said the rights of pregnant women with disability who visit some health facility in the region for deliveries are violated when they are coarse into accepting caesarean sections instead of normal delivery and therefore call to a stop in the practice. “Anytime a woman with disability goes to give birth, the suggestion straight away is to go for caesarean section. They (medical officers) do not look at whether the fellow can give birth normally or not” she said. “To cite a personal example, I have two children. In the case of my first child, they(nurses) just prescribed surgery but fortunately for me, the day I was in labour, when I got there, the doctor was not available and before they could get the doctor to come, the baby had already come out” she said. Madam Josephine also suggested that interpreters in sign language should be engaged at health facilities to assist hearing and speech impaired persons to communicate their ailment to nurses and doctors for effective diagnosis or in the alternative, sigh language interpretation should be included in the curriculum of training of health care providers to avoid wrong diagnosis. She said due to difficulty in communication, PWDs especially those with hearing and speech impairment had difficulty stating their ailment and obtaining the right diagnosis. Madam Gladys Waadi of the Ghana Blind Union described as worrisome the discriminatory attitude of some nurse towards PWDs. She alleged that pregnant women with disability are sometimes verbally abused by some nurses as though they do not have right to family life and demanded an immediate end to such unprofessional attitude by some nurses. Pastor Thomas Ayine who is in charge of disability sports said the assemblies must do more to address the plight of PWDs adding that the issues of disability should always be in the agenda of the assemblies in their meetings. He called on assemblies who have not appointed PWDs should reconsider their actions by selecting PWDS to represent the interest of PWDS in their deliberations. Pastor Ayine also called for the inclusion of PWDs as signatories to the account of the three allocation of the District Assembly Common Fund. Some of the duty bearers present responded to the issues raised at the meeting. Madam Evelyn Naaso of the Ghana Health Service promised to channel the concerns related to the health sector to management of the Ghana Health Service in the region for the necessary action to be taken. For his part, Mr. Godfrey Titigah of the Ghana Education Service bemoaned the lack of legislative instrument to back the implement the disability act stressing that the absence of the legislative instrument have contributed some of the problems faced PWDs and therefore appealed to parliament to fast track the process of evolving the legislative instrument to make for a smooth implementation of the Act. He however gave assurance that the GES will continue to sensitise head teachers and teachers to make the school environment disability friendly. Mr. Fred Apana, Convenor for Social Services of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly said the assembly will continue to engage PWDs as it has done in the past and address the issues confronting them. He said the assembly has in the past assisted PWDs financially and it will continue to do that equitably. On the issues of accessibility to the offices of assembly, he said it will require huge capital and efforts will be made to address such challenges but stated that new developments in the municipality are required to create access for PWDs. The Project Manager for RISE Ghana, Mr. Awal Ahmed said unless there is a shift from a clinical, charitable model of disability which focuses solely on the individual and emphasizes rehabilitative, compensatory measures to a social, rights-based approach which promises persons with disabilities the right to equality of opportunity and participation in society Ghana risk not attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. -End-